had tended to make Mrs. Carlson suspicious, and although she said
nothing about them, she gave her visitor to understand that she did not
propose to have the place apparently unoccupied any longer, and that
moreover she wanted to put it in the market. Upon this the man suggested
that she could do this and still let them have the use of the rooms; but
Mrs. Carlson could not be shaken from her position, because, as she
sagely remarked, people who thought of buying it would want to get into
it to see what it was like. Moreover, she added it would be another week
before the rent was due. The man admitted this but said that "Frank
Williams wanted to be sure of the place as he did not want to lose it."
All his arguments, however, were of no avail, the old lady would not
take the money under the circumstances, and the man departed.

Matters went on in this way until May 18th, when a letter, addressed in
a scrawling hand, and bearing the postmark of Hammond, Indiana, was
delivered at the Carlson cottage. Its contents, written on a half sheet
of note paper, were as follows:

_Mr. Carlson_--DEAR SIR: My sister is low at present and my
business calls me out of town. If you will please put the furniture
in your cellar for a few days I will pay you for your trouble. I am
sorry that I lost the key to the cottage door, but I will pay you
for all trouble. My sister told me to paint the floor for her so
that it would not be so hard to keep clean. I am now sorry I gave
the front room one coat. F. W.

That afternoon, Charles Carlson went over to the cottage for the purpose
of disposing of the furniture as requested in the letter. The front
window next to the cellar was found to be open, and through this he
secured an entrance. One glance at the inside filled him with alarm, and
he went back to the house after his father and mother. The condition in
which they found the place has already been described in the earlier
portion of this chapter. Their first impulse was to notify the police,
but after talking over the matter, they decided to allow the cottage to
remain as it was, moving neither stick nor stone until "Williams" came
for his furniture or an opportunity was afforded for renting the cottage
to another tenant. This determination was adhered to until the finding
of Dr. Cronin's body.

O'SULLIVAN AND "FRANK WILLIAMS."

This was the story as told by Mrs. Car